Nyamera

Here're the pictures: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...0&y=u81ius
WARNING: I had not read Atravelynn's photography advice, nor my big camera manual and I had almost no sun during the trip.

After the horribly un-African year 2006 I went on my 4th trip to Kenya from 20 June to 12 July this year 2007. My itinerary was as follows:

20/6, Hotel Terminal, Nairobi - 2 nights
22/6 Bushbuck Camp, Maasai Mara (Koiyaki-Lemek) - 6 nights
28/6 Hotel Impala, Nairobi - 3 nights
1/7 Mara Intrepids, Maasai Mara - 4 nights
5/7 Karen Camp, Nairobi - 3 nights
8/7 Hotel Terminal, Nairobi - 4 nights
There're reasons my itinerary looks like this, or at least that's what I'm trying to convince myself.

I'll just write what I remember happened.

Day 1
As usual I got up at 1am and left for the airport at 3am. My father was driving me and despite some very heavy fog we saw 2 hares, 8 roedeer and a moose that was munching away on a tree. No foxes or badgers.

I don't remember much about the plane trip and it's not interesting to write about anyway. On the first flight, to Amsterdam, there was only one choice of sandwiches and it wasn't vegetarian - very irritating. On the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi I got my vegetarian meal without problems. The journey was too quick, I slept almost all the time and didn't read my camera manual. The few minutes I was awake I worried about my lack of planning, my all time fat record and being in an atrocious physical and mental shape - all due to a teaching job that also, must be sad, gave me the money for the trip.

It was dark when I arrived in Nairobi and took a taxi to Hotel Terminal. The shapes of the thorn trees felt unreal, as did the marabous that I saw in the dark because I knew where to look. It was so sad and unavoidable that I'd be leaving in three weeks.

At the Terminal they thought it had just been a year since I last visited. The cleaner, Nelson, now had his own safari company about which he'd talk to me later. I got a double room for the price of a single (1300 shillings this year), but didn't know what to do with the extra bed

Nyamera

Day 2
I went out to get myself a pair of flip-flops. The morning was grey and very overcast and with the same time and effort as some people seem to do Sheldrick’s, Giraffe Centre, Blixen Museum and a dinner at the Carnivore, I got myself a pair of lilac flip flops at Bata and visited Zanzibar Shop and The Collector’s Den incognito. There were beautifully flowering trees of which I don’t know the name. Soon all street hustlers knew I was leaving for the Mara with Bushbuck Adventures the following day. To one, the little dreadlocked Chris on Kenyatta Avenue whom I’d asked where to find an alarm clock (I’d only remembered to bring ONE alarm clock), I mentioned that I hadn’t decided where I’d go after the Mara. He showed me the new and long overdue monument to Dedan Kimathi and the exact spot were a suicide bomb had exploded a week earlier. It was a local thing and the bomber had carefully avoided the most central and touristy areas, which sounded a bit too considerate to me. After finding an alarm clock – not an easy task, Chris said that Kenyans woke up to bird song, or their mobile phones -, he took me to two safari operators asking about a departure for Tsavo West or Amboseli. There were no dates that suited me and I wouldn’t have liked a group trip in a minibus anyway. I wanted at least 4 nights in either park and the scheduled departures were all 2 nights Amboseli/1 night Tsavo West. The price for all trips was $90 pppd for camping and $170 pppd for lodge. Chris understood that I wanted a tailor-made trip and his hometown happened to be Mtito Andei. He’d investigate and we’d meet at Simmers at 7pm

First I went to the City Market to get myself a beach dress. I wasn’t going to the beach, but I thought the weather might become warmer … At the first stall they insisted on selling me a dress that I didn’t want, for 2800 shillings. When I said I already had an almost identical one that I’d paid 800 for I was told by one of the four sellers “yeah, for that we’d eat a whole week”. I felt like telling them that I too was a curio seller and that when I hadn’t sold anything and people wanted better prices I just smiled even if I wanted to strangle them, but I don’t know if that’s 100% true. Then I found the kind of dress that I wanted, but it was too small. The seller said I would not be able to find my size and I decided never to return to the City Market, though later I changed that decision.

I’d always wanted to visit Simmers, but had found it too crowded to enter there alone. A Congolese band was playing. They were good but too loud. Chris said he’d prefer his bus fare to dinner, so he got both. He told me he had checked with Ngulia and Kilaguni about accommodation, transfers, game drives etc. It sounded expensive and I didn’t want to stay at Tsavo Inn. As I had spent too much money already I decided to go to Lake Naivasha instead. Chris had some ideas about that as well, but I wanted to go on my own. Anyway, he said he could go to Mtito Andei and talk directly with the lodge managers if I paid the return bus fare and I thought it was worth a try – at least as an experiment. Chris had a project in Mtito Andei: a campsite halfway between Nairobi and Mombasa and close to the Tsavo West gate. He already had 2 toilets there. I, as a “teacher”, and especially as Chris’s girlfriend, could start a nursery school there. When I protested that I didn’t know anything about small children (I’m even more clueless about the teenagers I’ve been teaching), Chris said that volunteers would do the work. Small children draw volunteers and then they would pay “us” to go on game drives in Tsavo West. As I got a feeling that Chris was very much after the money I don’t have, I didn’t get that involved – probably a huge mistake.

Nyamera

Day 3
I got up at 5, listened to the muezzin of Jamia mosque, and had drinking yoghurt and mini-bananas, which is quicker and better than tea and toast at the Dove Cage. I went down to the reception before 7.30 to wait for Bushbuck to pick me up - and there was Chris from Kenyatta Avenue. He’d been talking to someone in Mtito Andei who, with a small deposit in hand, could arrange a cheaper stay at Kilaguni. At the same time a taxi driver sent by Bushbuck arrived. I did not want to make him wait, so I told Chris we could talk when I got back from the Mara. The taxi driver took me to Westlands where Alice, owner of Bushbuck and wife of Ken with whom I’d been corresponding, Dancan, guide, and Joel, driver, waited. Dancan knew that I liked topis and I considered that a good start.

The 6+ hour drive began out of Nairobi, and then for a while through some misty exotic cedar woods that reminded a bit too much of home. Then we were stopped by the police. Joel had done something wrong, but I didn’t understand exactly what. We weren’t the only ones stopped. There was a queue and after a while the same policeman who had stopped us asked Joel, “who stopped you and why?” The Rift Valley appeared and this time, as I wasn’t in a bus, I could get off at a “viewpoint”. The view was very foggy, but I was told it would be better on the return to Nairobi that’d be in the afternoon. The truth is that I saw very little of the sun during my stay at Bushbuck, but when it peeked out from behind the clouds it was in the afternoon. Shortly after Maai Mahi the first zebras and tommies could be seen. There was a long stretch of whistling thorns, which I like, and a kori bustard crossed the road in a dangerous way. The state of the road to Narok was really bad, but there was some serious looking roadwork going on. In Narok we stopped at a tourist stop, had some tea and samosas and looked at curios. There were some giraffes identical to the ones I sell. The seller wanted me to buy one for approximately twice as much as my price and that was a good price because “the Americans” paid a lot more. After Narok the road was sensationally good until the turnoff where it says Olerai Ranch. There were wheat fields that at home would have looked idyllic, but here they looked like frightening death bringing monocultures. I saw some maize-stealing baboons, lots of zebras, tommies, giraffes and discovered that neither Alice nor Dancan had heard about the wild dog sightings in late 2006, but I didn’t see Bushbuck Camp until I was inside it.

The tents are situated in a circle of trees with short grass in the middle. A semi-circle would have had a view, but everything was quite lovely anyway. I’d been “worried” about not having a “self-contained” (en-suite) tent, but I discovered the bathroom indeed was attached to the tent, or right behind it and under the same shade, which to me is self-contained. Also, there was a washstand, a pitcher and a bucket of water all the time. Ken had promised me a medium size mirror, but I’d call the mirror placed between the sleeping tent and the bathroom tent big rather than medium size. There wasn’t enough light to use it though.

After a late delicious lunch – everything the cook, John, made was delicious – and a short rest we went off on the first game drive and there they were! I hadn’t seen the topis since my last visit to the Mara in 2003. Having to limit myself to one “expensive” place for each trip and needing to become a Kenya expert, I had been to Tsavo East and Samburu, but now I was back without having visited all Kenyan parks. Suddenly a big cheetah leapt up from the grass behind the vehicle. Joel started following him, but the cheetah kept running and running. Dancan said he must have seen lions or people walking, but he was running from the vehicle. There were giraffes, warthogs, zebras, hyenas and jackals, but no lions - very strange as I remembered lions lying about everywhere on my first trip, and cheetahs that were totally unafraid of vehicles. Instead of a whole pop roof there were three openings and I was standing in the front one, on the seat. Joel wasn’t a gentle driver and I got bruises here and there, and a couple of time I nearly smashed my very new and very precious camera. From the beginning I told Dancan I was very interested in learning ALL birds and plants. He was a devoted birder and member of bird watchers Nairobi, so that wouldn’t be problem, but as I was standing up in the wind there wasn’t much communication and I didn’t learn as much as I had intended. From this first game drive, or long before really, it was clear where in the world I wanted to be and my brain kept spinning and spinning trying to find a way to get more time than a few weeks the years that I’m lucky and spending the rest of my time where I don’t want to be, doing what I don’t want to do, but I found no answers. I suppose it’s an experience I share with a lot of people.

I had dinner with Dancan. That is, my solo travelling extended his workday. I always shower after dinner and had asked for my shower to be filled up some time around dinner, but it wasn’t possible to do it that way. All the time I was asked, “When would you want your water?” before dinner I replied “right now or anytime soon, I’ll shower after dinner” and after dinner I replied “now” and then I couldn’t sit next to the fire without being reminded that the water would get cold. It was like that every evening. Anyway, I managed to learn some Maa words from Steven, the waiter. I also learnt that it’s definitely not true that “smoke follows the one that shits on the road” is a Maasai saying. I’d believed that since my first trip to Kenya.

I have the custom, which I’m not going to change, of washing my hair every night. I’d been worrying about small bush showers at Bushbuck and appearing wasteful asking for a fill up. It really wasn’t a problem. I even cut my hair a bit and bought leave-in conditioner to make things easier, but as I always had a bucket of cold water, I used one pitcher to wet my hair and shampoo, next pitcher to rinse a bit, then I showered for a few seconds, soaped up (this was a bit too chilly) and rinsed soap and shampoo in the remaining shower water. I had enough cold water left to wash my underwear at night and my face in the morning. I got warm water from Steven in the morning, but I asked for it to be delivered at 6am and not 5am when I really get up and start trying to look decent.

The night wasn’t as cold as I’d imagined. I heard hyenas woo opping and I thought I heard a lion, but was too much asleep to be sure.

Nyamera

Day 4
In the morning when I was awaken by my two alarm clocks I definitely heard a lion, and very close. Though they sound closer than they are. Someone was moving around my tent and soon a little head peeked through the open zipper, and then came a long spotted body and an even longer ringed tail. The genet had a quick look and when I moved a little it ran out of the tent. I’d have liked some quality time with the genet, but it always came when I was very busy getting ready for the morning game drive.

The first thing we saw during the morning game drive that started at 6.30 was a lion walking around some bushes scent marking and then he went inside the bushes. Dancan said he would stay there the whole day. I thought of “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.” (Psalm 104, heard on the radio) Not how I remembered the Mara, but I was happy. Some 30 metres away there was a lone buffalo. There were jackals, a secretary bird and, of course, some topis. We had breakfast next to a tree out on the plain with the zebras and some ostriches. I tried to see how close I could get to the topis, but Dancan said they could “beat” me. Then we found a big family of elephants. Most of them were inside some thickets and Joel tried to drive to the other side, but didn’t dare to cross a deep ditch, took another road and there we got stuck in the mud. I was offered a pair of rubber boots to get off the Land Rover, but found it more practical to take off my sandals and then wash my feet in some deep cleanish water. The camp was phoned and soon another vehicle was on its way. It was the Landcruiser we had come in from Nairobi, which had a gear problem. The gear problem got worse and two vehicles were standing not too far from where the elephants were. It was decided that Dancan and I should walk back to the camp, as it was quite close. Since my comfortable leather sandals had disappeared very mysteriously and I didn’t trust my new sandals, I decided to walk barefoot. I was not going to have any foot problems this trip! The walk was longer than I thought, but that might have been because I was so slow. The game viewing wasn’t good – just some Thomson’s gazelles, birds and insects. The lions behaved very biblically hiding in their bushy dens. There was a slithering movement in the grass and I jumped straight up in the air like my cat when she’s surprised by something strange on the ground. Dancan said it was a small non-poisonous snake. I asked if he was sure it wasn’t poisonous. He was not. I wasn’t sure where in the grass the snake was hiding, but I managed not to step on it. Then I found some lion tracks, but they were old. When we got back to camp Alice said that she’d told the guys to ask for help at Kicheche, very close to where we were stuck, but they wanted to fix things themselves.

In the afternoon we went to the Mara River to have a look at the hippos. On the way we saw the usual suspects plus a fair number of kongoni that are so much rarer (and uglier) than the topi. After some relaxing listening to hippos Dancan got a call from a driver/guide that he had swapped numbers with. This driver was from “Elegant Safaris” (if I remember correctly). Most of the time there were no other vehicles in sight, but this year, unlike 2003, I did see some of the famous “traffic jams”. Most vehicles were from Kicheche that must be a bigger camp than I’d imagined. I also saw one or two Saruni vehicles. They looked really open and nice and I was jealous. Anyway, this driver from Elegant Safaris was seeing some lions not far from where we were. At that moment Joel stopped the car. Something was wrong and had to be fixed. Fortunately there were topis around. When we could continue it was quite late, but we saw two male lions. I’d thought that being back at 6.30pm wouldn’t be that important outside the reserve, but it was, the reason being that the camp was difficult to find in the dark.

Steven looked very tired, approximately as I felt and as some pupils, in not too nice words, told me that I looked at school. He gave me warm washing water, tea and biscuits at 6am, cleaned my tent during the morning game drive, served lunch and tea again before the afternoon game drive, put paraffin lamps in front of my tent and in the bathroom after dusk and served dinner. That didn’t prevent me from wanting him to contribute to my collection of Maa words after dinner.

I heard lions the second night as well.

Nyamera

Day 5
In the morning, after seeing something red that must have been a bushbuck hiding in a bush, we found some Kicheche vehicles looking at a pride of lions in the thickets. One lioness came out to show herself off for a while. Then there was a lion, a pregnant lioness and two half-grown cubs that ran quickly between the bushes. There were also some more discreet lions. We had breakfast next to some wildebeests. Dancan said nothing about that they could beat me, so they’re probably less dangerous than the topis.

In the afternoon Dancan wanted me to come and visit his “aunt” in town. Apparently she would be very happy and her children even happier. The aunt, Joyce, was younger and prettier than Dancan and she was Maasai while he was not. She had a very small shop at the entrance to her cow dung house with tin roof, maybe 1.5 m2. Joyce spoke almost no English and my Swahili and Maa are hardly conversational, nor is my English (or Swedish), but that’s another story. There was nothing I could buy in the shop, just maize flour, cooking oil etc. Maybe she just wanted to have a look at me. The children were adorable, but a bit shy. I waited for Dancan to tell me it was OK to take some photos, but he didn’t. Later he told me we would have to go back on the way to Nairobi to get some photos.

On the way back to camp we encountered some Kicheche vehicles and some lionesses lying about in Edenic style. I heard a Kicheche guide saying that they were part of a pride of 20. I should have been a more active consumer asking Dancan about that kind of things, but I wasn’t sure he’d know.

As I would like to appear as a Kenya expert I’m not sure if I should write this, but I misunderstood a thing. I thought the “park fees” included in my package were tickets to the National Reserve and that the group ranch fees were smaller and included in the accommodation cost. I asked Dancan when we would enter, but he just said “it’s just 30 minutes from camp, we’ll go there, but now we should visit my aunt, some hippos etc”, until he told me I should talk to Alice. Alice said I’d paid for the Koiyaki-Lemek Group Ranch fees that were $40 per day. To enter the reserve I’d have to pay $40 again and she didn’t recommend it when the migration wasn’t there. And, it was 3 hours to the gate if you did it as a game drive. Then she came back and said that, as Ken had been a bit unclear, I could go inside anyway on a long game drive with lunch. I don’t know if I should have said that I could pay the tickets myself, but I just accepted.

Nyamera

Day 6
Next day the plan was to have breakfast in camp at 7am, leave at 8am and be back at 3pm. We left at 7.30am. Suddenly I saw a serval crossing the road. I said “serval”, but heard Dancan and Joel talking about “caracal” and turning pages in the mammal book that was always in the vehicle together with a bird book, “the Guide’s Guide to Guiding” and “How to Handle Food”. Had it been some obscure rodent I would have understood, but this was a cat. I suppose Dancan is a bird specialist. Finally he asked me, “You know what it is?” It was a long drive to the Musiara gate, but not 3 hours, or maybe it was, I don’t remember. On the way there were many topis, zebras, tommies, impalas, and some hyenas, grants, warthogs and baboons. The swampy area after the gate was sprinkled with elephants. I was interested in Governor’s as I’ve heard there’re elephants in camp, but when we saw a glimpse of it there was a terrible chainsaw noise and I was happy I was staying at Bushbuck. There were waterbucks that I hadn’t seen around Bushbuck, and lots of topis. We spent quite some time looking at crocs, hippos and crossing points at different places along the Mara River. Then we went out on the plain.

On a track parallel to the river, circa 2 kilometres to the east, Joel thought that things were looking a bit too muddy and decided to turn back. He reversed into the grass and a deep, water filled hole. Thankfully my kidneys, of which I have two, and not my only – digital - camera got thumped. We were stuck. Dancan said it was a very bad place to get stuck because there were rules against getting out of the vehicle, patrolling rangers and dangerous animals. I tried to look suitably preoccupied, but thought it was the best thing that could have happened since I didn’t want to return early to Bushbuck and felt like getting out of the vehicle. Joel took off his clothes and put on rubber boots. It was almost exactly 1pm. After a while Dancan took out the lunch table and we - Dancan and I, Joel kept working to “unstick” the car - had some sandwiches, eggs and fruit. I asked what I could do to help and got the job of looking out for animals. My favourite job! When I saw that Joel was putting stones under the wheels I also started looking for stones. That was even better because there was mostly mud and grass and I walked further and further away. I found more bones than stones. As the hours passed, the job of looking for vehicles was added to my tasks. The only animals were some topi and kongoni that took turns looking at us. One elephant came walking towards us, but veered before getting too close. At approximately 5pm – 4 hours after getting stuck – a vehicle was sighted on the horizon. Dancan started waving with a white cloth and I used my yellow jacket. The vehicle signalled with the lights that we’d been seen and started driving towards us, but after a while there was a long stop that made us doubt that we’d really been seen. When the vehicle, that was from Governor’s Camp, reached us they didn’t have a rope and neither did we. “Hakuna kamba” was, BTW, the first expression I learnt on my first trip to Kenya. Soon more vehicles from Governor’s appeared. One had a rope - that looked like a rope, but was white – and it snapped when trying to pull us up. Another had a flat rope of what looked like sackcloth and that worked. Some of the tourists from Governor’s said that I should get new shoes from my safari company – and a new holiday! They’d vouch for me, but I didn’t get their contact info. They also said that there was a cheetah where they had stopped. This day was rather chilly and completely overcast, but I burnt my ears and nose anyway. When the Governor’s vehicles had disappeared and we’d been driving towards the gate for a couple of minutes, there was a new stop. Diesel had to be taken from “the back tank to the front tank” and there was some spitting involved. Jackals were appearing in the grass and things were getting animated. I hoped for a serious vehicle problem, but we soon continued and arrived at the gate at exactly 6.30pm.

On the way back to camp the young topis were really speeded, running, chasing each other and jumping like mad. There were lots of zebras on the road and quite a few hyenas. We also saw a solitary mongoose-like thing with long legs and a light tail. It must have been a white tailed mongoose, but Dancan didn’t know. Close to camp there were elephants of all sizes everywhere. There was some confusion about which track to choose until some vehicle lights were switched on in the camp. We were back at approximately 7.45pm and Alice had been very worried. She phoned Ken immediately to say I was safe. She asked me if Dancan had tried to phone her. When I had asked he had said there was no coverage.

I was no longer the only guest as three Frenchmen - Pierre, Richard and Sébastien - had arrived. They smoked and Richard started chasing a frog with his torch. Though later they proved to be better behaved than I’d feared. Pierre talked about how much he liked Thailand and I looked forward to the pleasure of watching him forget all about that country. I thought I had a twig in my hair, but when I tried to remove it I saw an insect sitting on my hand. It was really strong and felt more like steel wire than a normal insect. Then it stung me in the middle finger. I threw it away, it landed on the floor and Steven stepped on it at the same time as I told him not to. I can’t stand people who routinely kill insects, and that means almost all people. It was the second time I was stung by that kind of insect, so I knew the pain would last for a minute or so and then go away. The first time I thought my trip was ruined and I’d have to go to hospital. It’s called a wasp, but doesn’t look like a wasp at all. As my feet and sandals were caked in mud, I asked for an extra bucket of water. I didn’t clean my sandals.

I heard lions that night as well.

Nyamera

Day 7
In the morning we had a new driver, Joshua, who had driven the French guys to the Mara. Alice said it was because Pierre had a bad back. He was very worried about running out of painkillers, but didn’t miss a game drive. We saw some giraffes and the French friends were really impressed. A lone elephant was even better. Then we had breakfast next to the Mara River close to Livingstone where there were lots of hippos. On the way back to camp we saw a herd of buffaloes, warthogs and more giraffes. Steven had cleaned my sandals. They were so clean that I decided not to use them any more during the trip. On game drives I wore leather slippers and in Nairobi I wore extremely comfortable wedge sandals with bronze details. I’d not like to be seen in completely flat shoes in a capital city.

I had no foot problem during this trip, but I did suffer from “Safari Eye” which is a condition with symptoms ranging from running mascara to complete snow blindness. I didn’t become snow blind, but sometimes my mascara was all over my face and the last mornings at Bushbuck the light of a candle and a torch was painful while applying it.

In the afternoon we went to the rhino sanctuary and got really close to some guarded white rhinos. One of them was pregnant. On the way we saw some warthog hoglets that weren’t running! After the rhinos we went to visit Joyce and take some photos. All the time I’d been thinking about asking Dancan if we could visit Ron Beaton. For my trip I’d been enquiring about Koiyaki Wilderness Camp that had not yet opened and Ron wrote that I was welcome to pop in for a coffee or drink should I stay at a camp close to his home. That was when I had been writing about making a donation to Koiyaki Guiding School. I might have been less shy if I’d donated more than $55, but I never mentioned it to Dancan and Joel.

Now the Frenchmen had spent a long time in the Mara without seeing any cats and I was getting worried. On the plain very close to Aitong, Dancan saw something that he thought were lions with a kill. When we came closer we saw that there were only vultures eating what was left of – a lioness. My vehicle companions saw it as the circle of life and lions have to die as well, but I’m still thinking that maybe I should delete the photos. I started imagining that the lioness had been killed by people. We did see a hyena, but that’s not a cat.

That night I didn’t hear any lions.

Nyamera

Day 8
Next morning was warmer than other mornings when my fingers had become white and numb and I’d had serious problems pressing the shutter button. We even saw some morning sun. A giraffe was standing right outside the camp. Soon we came across a traffic jam consisting mostly of vehicles from Kicheche, but also two minibuses and some nice un-identified cream coloured open-sided vehicles. Two cheetahs were hunting. They walked and walked. The vehicles were well behaved keeping their distance, except one minibus and one cream-coloured one that drove up a bit too close in front of the cheetahs. After a while Dancan said there was something interesting some 100 metres away. I wasn’t convinced, but we went there. There were a couple of vehicles and two leopards walking! I started zooming in and out trying not to cut heads or tails. Every time I was going to press the shutter the vehicle moved and I lost my balance. That’s one reason I need an open-sided vehicle. The leopards went inside some bushes and I regretted not having learnt how to use my camera. Then I regretted having a camera. Without it I’d have watched the leopards instead of trying to photograph them. Meanwhile the cheetahs had begun running after tommies that were too far away. When they had to have a rest we drove closer and the Frenchmen couldn’t believe what they got on their display screens. Had I been on my own I’d had breakfast and lunch right there waiting for what the leopards would do. Though they probably spent the day in the thickets.

We had breakfast under a tree on the plain. Some Maasai came on bicycles to sell curios and I bought a bracelet. Then we went on a “village visit”. The cost was 700 shillings. I felt really stupid and touristy, but I suppose that’s what I am. First there was some singing, dancing and jumping, then a visit inside a house and then a curio market. I did say some Maa words, but nobody was that impressed. The worst thing was that I didn’t have enough time to decide what to buy at the market. After the village visit we went to the place of a spring from where we started a walk. We saw mostly zebras, wildebeests, cows and termites. Dancan said that closer to camp there were too many dangerous animals to do this kind of walk. After a while we where picked up by Joshua and went on to photograph giraffes.

After lunch when I was resting in my tent I heard Joel talking about lions. He asked if we wanted to come and see them and off we went. The drive was about 50 metres to some bushes next to the camp. There were two lionesses in a thicket and in another thicket they had a young giraffe that they’d killed in the morning. Joel had seen its mother looking very bitter. One of the lionesses started to walk towards the kill, but then Pierre somehow climbed up on the sunroof (we were in another, smaller vehicle than the one we used for game drives) and the lioness shrunk and sneaked back into the bushes.

In the afternoon we spent a lot of time with some buffaloes. The French really liked them, and so did I.

Nyamera

Day 9
In the morning I had a pair of mating stick insects in my bathroom. At least that’s what I think they were doing. We were going on a short game drive before breakfast at 8 and the return to Nairobi at 9. On the last game drive we saw a bit of everything, except cats. To keep the tears away, I decided to go to Amboseli instead of Lake Naivasha. We were back in the camp at 8.45am – 15 minutes to have breakfast, put up my hair, wash, reapply mascara etc. Of course, it was impossible. I pretended I was packing. Not having the packing almost finished didn’t make me appear too bright, but at least nobody could say, “we’re late, you don’t have to do that” I gave the tip envelopes to Steven and we were off some time after 10. My vehicle companions were amazed at the amount of animals they’d seen and I didn’t tell them that if anyone had told me they’d spent three nights in the Mara without seeing a male lion, I wouldn’t have believed them. They had never thought about going to Africa before a friend of theirs got a one year IT contract in Nairobi. “Africa” was not what they’d imagined and I didn’t hear anything more about Thailand. Now they were going to Lamu and then Amboseli with their friend who was desperate to find another job in Kenya, but would have to return to France. Alice, who also was going to Nairobi, came with Joel in the Landcruiser with a gear problem behind us. We kept standing with the roof hatches open until the good road to Narok started. In Narok we had some sandwiches and then we continued towards Nairobi. I could imagine that in a hundred years there’d be rhinos among the whistling thorns. I had no idea how it would happen though. There were giraffes. Up at the Rift Valley “viewpoint” I bought three pairs of earrings from the curio seller. The day was very grey and there wasn’t much of a view, but there was a rock hyrax with part of his ear bitten off. I photographed him instead.

We arrived in Westlands and had tea and coffee at Sarit Centre. When Pierre asked Alice where she preferred to be, she said Nairobi, because of her youngest daughter. Listening to that kind of thing must be the best contraceptive there is! The French were picked up by their friend and Alice told me to phone her if there was anything, and then she sent me off in a taxi to the city centre. I hadn’t booked a room at the Terminal. I’d half planned that it would be fully booked and that I’d check out the Downtown Hotel next door. It would have been disloyal to book the Downtown, but as the Terminal never even have given me a discount, I don’t know why. Anyway, the Terminal was fully booked, as was the Downtown, the Parkside and Kenya Comfort had only expensive “superior” rooms and even the Embassy, that gives me bad luck, was fully booked. There was some sort of women’s convention in town. I decided to try another part of town and the Lonely Planet guide said that the Hillcrest in Westlands was 1300 shillings for a single. The taxi driver had other ideas, but all the hotels he recommended where expensive or in dark places far away from everything. We arrived at the Hillcrest and I was told that their current rate was 3000 for a single! Finally I paid 2500 for the Impala Hotel on Parklands Road, within walking distance, but a bit too far from the shops and travel agents in Westlands. I was not happy with the Impala. My plan had been to check the Internet and send an email to Ol Tukai in Amboseli in the afternoon, go to bed early and in the morning find the perfect Amboseli trip leaving next day. Now it was late and I ordered a vegetable sandwich from the restaurant of the Impala. The sandwich had ham in it and then I got an sms from Chris from Kenyatta Avenue who wanted to know where I was. I answered that I’d decided to go to Amboseli.

Nyamera

Day 10
In the morning I discovered that the Impala must have been a grand hotel in the 70s. I found the 60s or 70s psychedelic African wildlife décor in the restaurant – in Spain it would have been psychedelic medieval – very intriguing. Other parts of the hotel looked older, but interior design really isn’t my thing, so I can’t say for sure. Breakfast was included and I probably ate a whole pineapple. Then I went to the reception to leave my key – and there was Chris from Kenyatta Avenue. He had some old looking brochures from Kilaguni and Ngulia Lodge and told me that he’d talked to the managers. I can’t remember the rates. I found them too high, but then I probably ended up paying more for returning to the Mara. Chris had got two bicycle punctures because of the thorns in Tsavo and that had cost him 600 shillings. I don’t think you can ride a bike in a national park, but as I just wanted to be left alone, I gave Chris the money, photographed him and tried to say good bye and run away to Westlands to get things done as fast as possible. Chris followed me there, but then he left me. Somehow I found Sarit Centre – my sense of orientation is really, really bad – and had a look at Bwana Mitch’s Website to find the website of Ol Tukai. The Ol Tukai website didn’t open. I looked for the address of Let’s Go Travel and found it. Their office was just up Waiyaki Way, but on the other side. It was a longer walk than I’d thought, and uphill, but finally I found the office. Ol Tukai was expensive and then I decided I had to return to the Mara. I wanted to know all options, but the girl behind the computer only seemed interested in sending me to Mara Intrepids. I’d been to Samburu Intrepids and knew I didn’t like big, fenced camps with – almost – animal proof luxury tents. I had first thought about leaving next day, Saturday, but it looked like I’d need one more day to find a good package. I got on a matatu to return to Westlands´ shopping centre and on the way I saw a sign that said “Heritage Management”. I had a late lunch at Chowpaty. It’s a 100% vegetarian restaurant, and as I’m not accustomed to that kind of choice, I had to ask the waiter to tell me what to have. The food was really good, but I had too much of it and afterwards I felt like hiding in a thicket. Instead of that I returned to Sarit Centre and visited Twiga Tours where the lady behind the computer quickly showed me different options for four nights in the Mara, all of them extremely expensive. She did feel she had to tell me that 4 nights in the Mara was a bit long, but realized that trying to educate me was useless when I told her I’d finished a 6 nights stay the day before. Then it occurred to me that, as a return costumer, I should get a discount from Heritage. It didn’t work with Basecamp, but I decided to try anyway.

It was 4.30pm and I knew Kenyan office hours were from 8–5. I would have to take a taxi to where I’d seen the sign. The at other times constant sound of “Taxi, madam?” had stopped and I didn’t see a taxi anywhere. I walked toward Waiyaki Way and saw Jonathan Scott with a big bag on his shoulder. I’d seen him in Tsavo in 2004 when I didn’t have digital TV and didn’t know who he was. As I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t say anything. I found a taxi and was dropped off outside the office of Heritage. Jesse at Heritage told me an astronomical price for a flying package to Mara Intrepids, but if he asked the person who decided these things he could waive the single supplement and give me a special rate on the rest of the package. He could not get hold of that person, but would email me in the morning. He himself could stay for free (!) and did only have to pay the transport, but he never had any time to go to the Mara.

I walked back to the shopping centre. I was going to eat something at the food court at Sarit Centre, but remembered that I’d already eaten for several days, so I had a passion juice instead. Then I bought some drinking yoghurt and mini-bananas at Uchumi supermarket. I also tasted all kinds of Kenyan cheeses – there are others than “Kenyan yellow cheese” – and felt I should buy a cheese –, which I did. A matatu tout asked me if I was afraid of getting on the matatu. I told him I take matatus all the time, but preferred to walk and then I asked if he was afraid of the Mungiki. It wasn’t a problem. People used to be told not to carry any valuables when out in the evening. Now you just had to leave your head at home.

The road to the Impala was a bit too dark and I wasn’t sure I was walking in the right direction, but I arrived safely and had some yoghurt before showering and going to bed. Then the singing started. The singer was quite good and I regretted not having stayed up a bit, but he never stopped and it started to irritate me.

Nyamera

Day 11
I woke up at 3am and the singer was still singing. I think there were songs all night because when my alarm clocks sounded at 6am people were still singing. They didn’t sound as professional as the first singer though. I had breakfast and ran to the Post Office at Sarit Centre to check my email. They hadn’t opened, but when they did I found an email from Jesse with “You have been offered resident rate” on the “subject line”. I ran to Heritage. Other than waivered single supplement and resident rate, I got an exchange rate (60) that was a lot better than the already devalued US dollar rate when I paid in shillings, but it was still frightingly expensive. I said that Explorer would be even better, but Jesse didn’t get the hint. Then I had lunch at a Lebanese restaurant called the Phoenician. It was hard to find and expensive, but the food was good. I can’t remember what I did in the afternoon, but I wasn’t back at the Impala until after dark. Then I had a soup at the “singing bar”, but I went to bed before the singing started.

Nyamera

To be continued …

nyama

Nice reading!

Leely

You have me laughing and laughing. This report is so very Nyamera. Although all the biblical references make me think you should come move to the U.S.

I saw the lion carcass photo and wondered about that as well. I suppose Dancan and the gang didn't have any ideas?

I can't remember what kind of camera you ended up with. Was it kimburu's? In any case, your photos are beautiful. I am very impressed you got such good bird pics. I can never get those at all.

Very much looking forward to your next installment.

Patty

This is great so far! I can't wait to read more.

Alejandra

Nice Nice Nice...enjoy reading your report. Lovely pictures, especially the 3 cheetah brothers faces.

Nyamera

Merci beaucoup, Nyama, Patty and Alejandra.

Leely, the bible is very popular in Kenya as well and the Swedish radio has some religious words early in the morning from a different religion every week. I prefer Islam because of the music (the words are really bland). The young lions “ de unga lejonen ryter efter rov” from the Book of Psalms caught my attention though and I looked them up. It’s probably a hymn to the sun from the beginning. I should start a church in Kenya. That would be a good business! The funniest thing that has ever happened to me in Kenya was when I, in Voi 2004, met a preacher from Nigeria who wanted to pray in my hotel room. I suppose that kind of thing happens all the time in the US.

I ended up with a new Canon S3. Kimburu’s camera wasn’t in that good shape, at least not the display screen.

Dancan thought the lioness had been injured while hunting. The carcass was really close to Aitong.

I used unethical methods for some of the bird photos, like baiting with chilli crisps. The superb starlings liked it. Maybe I shouldn’t have told this …

jul_uk

This is a wondeful report. So natural and funny and I feel I am there. I have read you want a new career. If I could think of a magazine etc that used your style of report I would definitely subscribe to it. Thanks for the entertainment - more please
Julie

DanaA70

Nyamera, you have kept me entertained all afternoon with your prose and poetry of Kenya.
I am a bit worried though that you did not see more game in the Mara as I was hoping to be there next year at the same time.
Maybe I will just fly in as you and "wing it" ..sounds like quite an experience! D.

atravelynn

Just wanted to commend you on the title. I´ll be readig the report and looking at the photos about Aug 1.

Double Mara sounds like a drink for around the bonfire, or better yet, a gooey dessert.